Jauron disappointed with sluggish Bills performance

Paul A. Jannace

Sunday

Aug 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 26, 2007 at 11:18 AM

But offense did show a little big-play potential during loss to Titans.

Buffalo Bills’ head coach Dick Jauron used words like disappointing, sluggish and concerned when assessing his team’s play after Friday night’s 28-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans, but stopped short of saying he is alarmed.

Playing the entire first half, the Bills’ first-team offense, while underwhelming overall — especially on the ground — did flash some of its big-play potential.

Rookie running back Marshawn Lynch, who only received seven total carries in the first two exhibition contests, carried nine times Friday for only nine yards and one reception for three yards.

The Bills’ other young running back, second-year man Fred Jackson, had four carries for 31 yards and a touchdown — albeit against Tennessee’s second- and third-team defenses.

However, Lynch did not receive much help from his offensive line, who also allowed quarterback J.P. Losman to get knocked down quite often, leaving him a with a thigh bruise, but did not anticipate it being something that would keep him out of game action.

“I got hit a couple of times tonight,” Losman said. “They’re a bigger, physical team. We knew that going in.”

The Bills did lose cornerback and return specialist Terrence McGee to a concussion in the first quarter, likely keeping him out of the final preseason game Thursday in Detroit.

“The odds of him playing in the final exhibition game are probably not good at all,” Jauron said.

Despite completing only nine of 20 passes for 180 yards, Losman did excite the sold-out Ralph Wilson Stadium crowd with a 56-yard pass down the middle of the field to wide receiver Peerless Price, setting up a field goal, and Buffalo’s highlight of the night — a 64-yard touchdown strike down the left sideline to wide receiver Lee Evans, who finished with five catches and 100 yards, giving Buffalo a short-lived 10-7 lead.

“That was really the first two times that we called deep balls all preseason,” Losman said. “Obviously, our confidence skyrocketed from there.”

Losman admitted more work has to be done and noted Tennessee showed them some defensive schemes — quarter and Cover 2 trap — that the Bills had not seen much of since last year.

“You’re always going to feel like you could’ve done better,” Losman said. “We’re moving in the right direction.

“There’s a long way to go,” added Losman. “It’s a long process and it’s going to be a grind and we knew that going into it.”

On defense, the Bills struggled, allowing 218 yards in the first half and 393 total, partly due to poor tackling.

“It’s always nice to see things that are correctable, but at the same time, this is the NFL and if you’re not tackling well, how did you get here,?” said Bills’ defensive end Chris Kelsay. “It’s not just other people, myself included, I’m not pointing fingers.”

Kelsay said tackling will be a big focus this week in practice and heading into Week 1 against Denver.

“If it needs to be corrected, it’s going to be corrected,” Kelsay said. “You’ve got to pick your play us, regardless. You’ve got to take every snap like it’s your last.”

Titans’ quarterback Vince Young scored the first touchdown of the game in the second quarter on a 4th-and-goal scramble from the 2-yard line, eluding linebackers Keith Ellison and Paul Posluszny.

“Vince Young is hard to tackle, but we’re not alone in that,” said Jauron. “A lot of NFL teams look bad trying to tackle him.”

Tennessee took a 14-10 lead into the half after Young his tight end Bo Scaife from five yards out with 30 seconds left. Kerry Collins replaced Young to start the third quarter and led consecutive scoring drives to extend Tennessee’s lead to 28-10, connecting with wide receiver Justin Gage from 16 yards and wide receiver Biren Early on a 40-yard pass.

Jackson added a one-yard score late in the fourth to close the scoring.
The Bills did score one other time — a 65-yard punt return by Roscoe Parrish — but had it called back because of a penalty.

“We have some explosive players, but we killed ourselves sometimes,” said Evans. “It’s just the little things like that we’ve got to eliminate.”

Friday night also saw the return of former Bills receiver Eric Moulds, who caught one ball for five yards.

In the battle for the Bills’ backup quarterback job, Craig Nall saw his first action in two weeks, starting the second and completing four of seven passes for 38 yards, while rookie Trent Edwards went 7-of-10 for 100 yards.

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